Komodo Dragons
Truly Amazing Creatures by Louis Quall
The Largest Lizard On Earth
Komodo Dragons are by far the largest lizards on earth. Komodo's often grow to be in between 8 and 10 feet [2.5-3 m]. A Komodo Dragon have large, but flat heads, powerful legs, and long, thick bodies. Adult's are usually a dull gray color with a tiny bit of yellow. The largest males can grow to 11 feet [3.35 m] long. A big male can weigh as much as 550 pounds! [249 kg]. These large will eat any animal they can get their teeth on. Komodo's even eat each other! Doesn't that sound crazy! Komodo's are big with sharp teeth and a forked tongue, no wonder people compare them to dragons!
Komodo Dragons are very ruthless creatures. They can grow 200 teeth a year. Once bitten by the Komodo Dragon the bacteria in the lizards bite breaks down the victim's immune system and the victim dies.
The Komodo Dragon's speed is very underestimated. The Komodo Dragon at top speed of the Komodo can reach 12 miles per hour.
The Komodo Dragon is the largest lizard on earth. The largest Komodo ever recorded was 10 feet 4 inches. What a huge creature!
Not Just Legends
Most people think that it would be pretty hard to find a 10 foot, sharp toothed lizard. Shockingly, the Komodo Dragons were only discovered in 1912, almost 100 years ago. The species of Komodo Dragons live on the islands of Flores, Padar, Komodo, and Rintja. Komodo's also live on other small islands in the Flores Sea. The islands I am talking about are part of Indonesia, which is a country south of Asia. See, back about 100 years and even farther back, the scientists only lived in the big cities. These islands were very far away from the big cities so it was hard for the scientists to reach the island and find out about the Komodo Dragons. The people who lived on the islands the Komodo's lived on knew about Komodo's for hundreds of years. These people told travelers stories about the Komodo Dragons, sadly no one believed the stories. When scientists started going to these islands, they found out that the Komodo Dragons were real and not just the legends the people who lived on the island talked about